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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Panama Canal Expansion and the Economic Impacts on New York and New Jersey States</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1362121</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objectives of this research are 1) to measure negative and positive estimates of Panama Canal expansion using secondary imports and exports data available from WISERTrade (www.wisertrade.org) and 2) to understand the possible gains that New York and New Jersey states obtain. To increase container shipment capacity, the Panama Canal Authority in 2006 decided to invest more than $5 billion to expand the Canal. The expanded Canal will accommodate larger vessels that cannot now traverse the facility. Along with capacity expansion, the project is expected to have significant impacts on U.S. water and ground carriers, including transportation systems relating to cargo distribution, port development, U.S. supply chains, and logistics. The expansion will induce an even greater flow of container trade between Asian countries and the U.S., and hence, trade volumes arriving at Gulf and Atlantic Coast ports are also expected to increase as shipping cargo shifts from the congestion experienced in West Coast ports.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2015 01:01:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1362121</guid>
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      <title>Identify What All Involved Agencies Are Currently Doing to Address Safety When Freight Centers Are Planned and Developed, As Well As Any Opportunities for Improvement</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1358864</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project stems from an observed need to improve coordination and cooperation among various entities in the process of planning for developing safer and more efficient connections between intermodal facilities and the highway network. Coordination and cooperation are extremely important given the number of public agencies (local, regional, and state) and private companies (railroads, transportation, manufacturing, etc.) that become involved in the planning process. When a limited number of entities, public or private, are involved in the planning process. Some vital stakeholder concerns may not be adequately considered. Guidance is needed to provide a consistent approach to involve all of the entities that should be part of the process. Excluding some entities, even unintentionally, could result in important facts, issues, and other considerations being left out of the process. Exclusions could result in project delays, increased costs, omitted project steps, or duplication of efforts. The Performing Agency or "Research Team" shall investigate previous and current freight planning efforts and identify lessons learned and best practices to be applied in Texas to include the work and findings of the of Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT or "Receiving Agency" or "Project Team") Panama Canal Stakeholder Working Group. The project will develop guidance that stakeholders in Texas can use in planning and coordinating intermodal freight facilities to improve freight movement, enhance safety, and minimize congestion. These stakeholders include: (1) Metropolitan Flaming Organizations (MPSs); (2) Cities; (3) Counties; (4) Economic development corporations; (5) TxDOT; (6) Freight and transportations companies; and (7) Intermodal freight center developers. The project will identify short term accessibility improvement opportunities that could be considered to address current roadway operational issues such as curb radius at intersections in the vicinity of rnulti-modal facilities.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2015 01:01:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1358864</guid>
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      <title>Inland Waterway Shipment Management System</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357366</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The inland waterway network is perfectly positioned to increase its prominence in the nation's supply chain system.  Increasing fuel costs, environmental concerns, and changes in the freight distribution network due to the widening of the Panama Canal are pressing shippers to find better ways to move their product from manufacturer to market.  Inland waterways offer several key advantages when compared to traditional modes of transport.  Specifically, the cost per ton of moving freight via inland waterways is significantly lower, and waterway freight movement is more environmentally friendly than other transport options. To capitalize on these opportunities, it is essential that the inland waterway industry move toward increased supply chain management efficiency.  Currently, some data is shared among interested parties with regard to inland waterway freight movements.  However, this data is often not sent in real-time and is seldom processed in a timely manner.  The coordinated use of real-time tracking, electronic manifests, and electronic route plans will allow stakeholders of inland waterways to better utilize the network via the Inland Waterway Shipment Management System (IWSMS).  Furthermore, the creation of the IWSMS will help to greatly increase the efficiency of inland waterways and improve the competitiveness of the United States in the global economy.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2015 01:01:16 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357366</guid>
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      <title>Inland Waterway Operational Analysis Model</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357365</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Currently, there is an opportunity to expand the business platform provided by the inland waterway infrastructure of the United States, especially in the eastern part of the country. Several factors have aligned to allow for this opportunity, including: (1) Anticipated completion of the Panama Canal expansion to accommodate larger ships; (2) Volatility and increases in the price of crude oil; (3) Environmental advantages of waterway shipments; (4) Increased government investment in inland waterways; (5) A need for meeting current capacity requirements for freight shipments; and (6) A need for enhancement and expansion of the nation's export infrastructure In order to capitalize on the opportunities that are currently within reach for the inland waterway system, it is critical to understand the operational characteristics of the river system and the many variables that affect the usage of the system. The purpose of this project is to develop a "real world" model for analyzing freight movements along inland waterways.  In order to gain a better understanding of the inland waterway system, it is first critical to understand the operational capacity of the system given the changing conditions of infrastructure, port operation characteristics, barge/tow capabilities, and the river characteristics itself.  Once the basic operational characteristics of the river are understood it is possible to further examine what potential changes can be made to increase usage of the system.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2015 01:01:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357365</guid>
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      <title>Multimodal Freight Distribution to Support Increased Port Operations</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357225</link>
      <description><![CDATA[It is projected that more containers will pass through the major ports of the mid-Atlantic region with the completion of the Panama Canal expansion, and as shippers and carriers find it more efficient to move cargo on larger container vessels.  As a result, not only is it expected that a larger number of containers will be unloaded/loaded every time a New-Panamax vessel docks at a port, it is also widely anticipated that these larger ships will concentrate among a small of number ports, particularly those that have deeper channel depths, such as the Port of Virginia. It is going to be vital to the regional economies and to the surrounding areas to be prepared to handle the anticipated increase in container traffic with energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies and transport options. In particular, efficiency in handling high-volume of containers at the ports and in transporting containers beyond the ports is critical. This study will bring together researchers from multiple universities to investigate strategies to optimize container handling inside the terminals, to more heavily utilize inland waterways and rail systems, and to optimize logistics to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions while maintaining mobility needs.  In particular, the team from Old Dominion University (ODU) will investigate port operations strategies where both rail and truck traffic in and out of the port is considered. Interactions between these transport modes, and staging and handling of containers within the port will be investigated. Motivated by the rail connectivity available at the Port of Virginia, ODU will lead the research effort that will explore the use of rail to more efficiently move cargo out of the port. The team will explore optimization and simulation methods to study various complex interactions and factors influencing the flow of containers over multiple modes. These methods will help identify more cost and energy efficient strategies to handle large volume of container traffic inside the terminals. New models will be developed to understand the feasibility and potential benefits of such strategies.  The team from VT will support research in the area of optimization of freight movement within the context of fuel consumption and emission modeling which requires the development of fuel consumption and emission models for the various types of freight modes. Virginia Tech's team will focus on developing the fuel consumption and emission models for various ground transportation modes including trucks and trains. The focus will be on developing models that can be easily calibrated using publically available data. In addition, the VT team will consider developing smart systems to reduce the energy consumption of freight transport (e.g. eco-cruise control systems, eco-adaptive cruise control systems, etc.).  While optimizations for network-wide freight logistics have been focused on either flow maximization or total system travel time minimization, little research has focused on the greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumptions in the context of multimodal freight logistics. The team from UVA will work on formulating and developing an optimization approach for multimodal freight networks to minimize greenhouse gas emissions or fuel consumption. Implementation  Potential implementation of project outcomes During this research, the team members will work closely with the Port of Virginia, rail lines (e.g. Norfolk Southern), and the private industry. The developed tools, techniques, and solutions will be shared with them for potential implementation.  Various components and algorithms for eco-cruise control systems, eco-adaptive cruise control systems, and eco-routing systems will be developed for more energy-efficient transportation of freight. Impacts  Expected benefits and impacts  A new suite of modeling and simulation tools and methodologies is envisioned to result from this research that can be used throughout the nation to combat congestion at the ports in a post panama canal expansion era.  Development of fuel consumption and emission models for various ground transportation modes including trucks and trains.  Impacts of various modes of transporting containers on greenhouse gas emission]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2015 01:01:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357225</guid>
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